Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 29: Continuing with the trend of party-hopping witnessed in the state that is gearing up for assembly poll of late, Congress MLA from Channapatna, C P Yogeshwar, announced that he would be returning to BJP soon. In another development, veteran BJP leader, former MP, and BJP Raitha Morcha president from Mysuru, Vijayashankar, resigned from his party.

In separate press conferences held on Saturday October 28, the leaders expressed disappointment and anger at the leaderships of their current parties. Yogeshwar, who addressed a press conference at Ramanagara, said that he would be returning back to the fold of his parent party without any pre-conditions and that he will officially join BJP in the presence of Amit Shah at the Parivarthana Rally being held in the city on November 2. He termed Congress as an old banyan tree that is past its prime. He also said that Rahul Gandhi lacks the maturity to either run Congress party or the country, and charged the leaders from the state of using this weakness of Rahul Gandhi to their advantage.

C P Yogeshwar

Vijayashankar

Yogeshwar, in a diatribe addressed at state energy minister, D K Shivakumar, claimed that the minister had strictly told the officials at Channapattna not to do any work at the behest of the former. He said he has audio records about this allegation. Yogeshwar claimed that he also has documentary evidences about power scams involving Shivakumar and that he would soon place them in the public domain.

At the same time, talking to media persons at Mysuru, Vijayashankar, who was associated with BJP since the last three decades, announced that he had decided to sever his link with the party. He stated that he had sent his resignation letter to BJP state president, Yeddyurappa. "I am hurt at being made a scapegoat repeatedly towards ending my political career. On account of the secret plan of a local leader, an entrepreneur from the city is being fielded constituency. Party leaders and workers are going through a phase of confusion. So I decided to resign from BJP, and will take a call about the future in a couple of days," he announced.

When media persons wanted to know whether he had been personally contacted by Siddaramaiah to invite him into the Congress, he did not deny this information. However, he added that none of the JD(S) leaders had got in touch with him.